Aidan O’Brien receives mauling from Australia press over Cup tactics

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Alan Lee’s Diary from Down Under reveals that the champion Irish trainer’s gameplan for Melbourne has come in for plenty of criticism

Having spent a week fêting Aidan O’Brien as the greatest living trainer, Australia’s press turned on him savagely yesterday.

O’Brien, and his jockeys, were easy prey after the collapse of a very public plan to dictate the pace of the Melbourne Cup. The local media, surprised and relieved that the Cup stayed at home, taunted them mercilessly.

Melbourne’s tabloid Herald Sun led the assault with two comment pieces on Ballydoyle’s misguided trailblazing. One accused them of “a very costly display of arrogance”, asking: “Did they really think they knew better than all the other owners, trainers and riders in our